The Exiled Prince and His Siren

Chapter 4

Maximillian took another step forward, eyes locked on Violetta.

He took long heavy strides until he reached them. Arissa stood in front of Violetta’s floating form but Maximillian’s attention wasn’t on her. The sorceress has known him all his life to see the growing curiosity by the way his shoulders and jaw are tensed, and the slight furrow of his brows. She can’t blame him for feeling surprised after discovering the half-blood who annihilated a group of hunters by herself is right in the midst of his home after disappearing from sight.

He can smell the scent of water off of her. The smell sticking to her despite the layers of blanket wrapped around her.

“I need to take her in one of the rooms to rest.” Arissa broke his train of thought.

Maximillian finally met her stare. “Why is she here?” He asked in response.

“It would be best if I explain the situation once she wakes.” She said simply before turning back and headed up the stairs with a floating Violetta in tow.

As she expected, Maximillian’s heavy footsteps followed after them.

Arissa kept her gaze in front of her. She can feel the waves of emotions coming off of the prince, palpable in the air surrounding them. Walking down the long hallway, she’s brought back to the day she saw everything. The years couldn’t have passed any faster as the looming future of the two people behind her comes close to unraveling.

Her heart aches for them both. A predetermined meeting and an inevitable future.

She brought herself out of her thoughts when they reached the room. She made a stop in front of double doors. The room was on the far side of the hall, enough to give the half-blood her much needed privacy in order to rest well.

The doors opened on her command and the sorceress walked through. She placed Violetta right in the middle of the bed and covered her once again with the blankets she was wrapped in. When she looked settled enough, Arissa turned on her heels and made her way out where the prince stood right outside the entrance to the room.

She closed the doors behind her and faced the prince. “Welcome back.” She said. “How was your trip to the kingdom?” She asked as she walked back.

“Enlightening” Maximillian answered a few steps behind her.

He continued. “I crossed paths with a group of hunters en route to deliver a caravan full of half-bloods. I went against all caution and ended them myself. Then the day before, I saw a half-blood do the same. Only this time, she left no traces of the hunters behind.”

Arissa halted in her steps and faced him. Surprise was evident on her face.

“The same half-blood you just placed on the bed.” Maximillian added. He studied the faraway look on Arissa’s face as he spoke.

“No wonder she was exhausted.” She whispered under her breath. Maximillian frowned at her words. Her reaction clearly what he wasn’t expecting.

“Her fatigue will only worsen through the night. She’ll be restless with chills. You can attend to her by wrapping more blankets and wiping the sweat off her face.” She said, facing him once more.

“It shouldn’t be me.” The prince protested.

“Why shouldn’t it be you? Out of all of us, you’re the one who seems to want to know her the most.” She countered.

“How did she even get here?” He finally asked, exasperated.

Arissa sighed. “She stumbled into my portal.”

They continued walking down the hall while continuing the conversation. The questions in Maximillian’s mind have doubled the more they talk about the half-blood.

“She kept her abilities dormant for a long time.” Arissa said, walking as she talks. “She must have exhausted them when she faced those hunters.” She said, glancing at him once when the prince fell into step with her.

“She’s strong for a half-blood.” Maximillian commented.

“You’re a half-blood too your highness.” Arissa replied with a stern tone at his title.

“I am both the creatures of my parents. She is of human blood Arissa. No half-blood could have done what she did.” He said just as strongly.

“Just because she was sired from a creature with no abilities such as ours doesn’t mean she’s capable of anything less than we are.” Arissa stressed, slightly disappointed at his judgement of the girl.

Maximillian fell silent at her words. He can feel he disappointed the sorceress but he can’t help but stand by his words, based solely on the fact that no other half-blood he saw captured by the hunters, was able to fight and defeat them as marvelously as she did.

Arissa faced him. “You must have a dozen questions in your mind right now, but it would be best to wait for her to wake from her slumber.”

“You can check up on her from time to time but don’t stay the whole day in her room, alright?”

“I don’t think I can –” He tried to speak but she cut him off once again.

“I’ll check up on her as well. So don’t worry too much.” She said, walking away.

Maximillian sheepishly ran his fingers through his hair as Arissa walked away. He looked towards the stairs where Violetta was and let out a sigh. There’s a deep sinking feeling of dread coming from within him along with a slight hint of excitement. It was an odd combination of foreign emotions but he acknowledges them anyway. What he can’t though, is the reason for their emergence. As he believes that if he does, he won’t know what to do with it.

The dark was a comfortable companion. There was space to think. There was space no one would dare enter. The dark is a place he was all too familiar with.

In the comfort of the darkness that filled his throne room, his mind was reeling with only one question. Claudus couldn’t fathom for the life of him who would dare, much more who was strong enough, to go head to head with his hunters and live.

One left a c*****e that was a sight to behold. Not one hunter was left as whole. The carriage carrying the half-bloods was thrown to the bushes, abandoned empty. The stories about the powerful beast that bested his hunters spread like wildfire. The people were becoming ambitious. Thinking they too can stand a chance. This was quickly became a thorn on his side he wants nothing more than to pick out.

Then the second attack. The one that left no traces of his hunters behind aside from cloaks stiff dry. The carriage was destroyed, all splinters and wood. His commandant had told him it seemed as though something forceful came down on it at once to cause such damage. They couldn’t have been done by the same one.

All in a day’s interval.

The oracle’s words came back to haunt him once again. ‘You are sitting on a borrowed throne. Ruling a borrowed kingdom. The crown may be perched on your head now, but it too will soon be collected by the right head.’

His borrowed kingdom. The very one he took from under the griffin king’s nose on the same day he witnessed his weak willed sister get consumed by her own flames.

His sister had chosen him and had a son. He didn’t see what happened to the boy on that day in the forest. His commandant mentioned facing both Violet and her commandant yet Violet was on her own when he reached them. Not even her most loyal lady in waiting, the sorceress, was there.

The memory of that day is beginning to bother him. If the boy is alive, the oracle is clearly pertaining to him.

Violet was weak against love but his sister was a strong strategist. Always with a plan and impeccable foresight. She could have been his commandant had she not fallen for the griffin king. Therefore, if he knows her like he thinks he does, she would have predicted him going after them should he win against the king. Then she would, with all her power, do whatever it takes to make sure that the child she had with the griffin king is safe from his grasp.

She wouldn’t trust him with anybody else. Hence the commandant and lady in waiting. If she was alone on that day, then they were most likely with the child.

She hid them somewhere.

Now he has to turn the kingdom inside out to find them.